McComb attorney Robert Lenoir has been indicted on seven counts, including first-degree murder, in connection with the death of a woman whose body was found in his home last year.
Lenoir turned himself in at the Pike County jail on Wednesday afternoon after being served with the indictment, which accuses him of a variety of charges, including evidence and witness tampering, child abuse, child endangerment and drug possession.
Wendy McMahan Dansby, 55, of Madison County, was found dead at his home on March 30, 2021.
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A preliminary autopsy report indicated she died of a brain bleed but gave no information about how she died.
In addition to Dansby’s death, the indictment also accuses Lenoir of two counts of possession of methaphetamine.
The evidence tampering charges stem from Lenoir’s alleged attempt to destroy the drug while it was in his possession at the McComb Police Department when Lenoir went to go talk to detectives after Dansby died.
Police said last year that Lenoir was alone in an interview room when he allegedly tried to swallow some meth and a detective, watching him on surveillance cameras, came in and stopped him.
The child abuse and endangerment charges relate to Lenoir allegedly exposing a 2-year-old child to meth, according to the indictment.
The indictment alleges Lenoir tried to induce Reagon Zufelt “to testify falsely or provide a false version of events exonerating or incriminating another person.”
McComb police arrested Lenoir on March 30, 2021, and turned the case over to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. District Attorney Dee Bates said his office has recused itself and the District Attorney’s office in Forrest County is prosecuting the case.
Dansby’s children, Sarah Grace Milton, Katherine Starkey and Daniel Booze, all residents of Livingston Parish, La., filed a lawsuit in Pike County Circuit Court March 29 claiming he caused her death through “numerous injuries including head trauma.”
Lenoir had bonded out on $200,000 following a court hearing last year in which a judge stipulated that he receive treatment at a rehabilitation center.
Lenoir’s attorney Ronnie Whittington told the court that Lenoir had been accepted into a treatment facility in Winnsboro, La.
